I Started This Thinking It Would Help My Disciple, But Something Went Wrong
"Just holding hands. Hands only."
"...I get it already! I get it!"
"It wouldn't really matter if you did it on the forehead either..."
"Absolutely not! For the sake of any unforeseen circumstances, it's best we leave it at a handshake!"
In the end Jade nodded, agreeing to follow William's wishes. Riel made her extreme displeasure perfectly clear by jutting her lips out in a full pout.
Seriously, why is a human who ranks as an Archmage acting like this?!
Riel's eyes saw a great many things. That meant that no matter how thoroughly someone tried to hide themselves, she could still perceive the essence concealed within. William's painstaking efforts to completely suppress his mana were therefore rendered utterly meaningless. And so Riel had no choice but to remain wary of him. An Archmage was a being of such towering stature that even the highest human authorities had to watch their step around one. Yet here was such a person behaving as if he were some mere attendant...
In more ways than one, the situation was steeped in terror.
It's not that I'm scared! Even if the other party is an Archmage, I'm confident I can win! I'm definitely not doing this because I'm frightened!
It wasn't exactly a lie. But it wasn't the full truth either. With her skill, Riel was certain she would never fall behind even against an Archmage or Sword Master who had reached the realm of superhumans. The problem came afterward. Humans who stood in that transcendent realm were invariably connected to vast organizations. The result would be making an overwhelming majority into her enemies. Of course Riel could always call upon the elves... but that was a path she had no desire to take. And so, in the end, she could not fight a human who had reached the superhuman realm. There was nothing to gain from such a fight.
"...It would be more convenient to do it with my lips on the forehead..."
"What?"
"I didn't say anything!"
In the end Riel resigned herself to quietly taking Jade's hand. The difference was only about as large as having to scoop something up with a small spoon when a big one would have finished the job in a single go; it wasn't a serious problem. Still, no one particularly wanted to do something multiple times when it could be finished in one. But if she mishandled that Archmage she would probably end up suffering far more, so Riel decided to endure a little extra trouble and move on.
"...I'm starting."
In the end she had to take a very long way around, but Riel finally succeeded in bestowing her blessing upon Jade.
"A dream, is it."
I realized without difficulty that I had come to my senses inside a dream world. It wasn't hard to figure out. My body was moving according to my thoughts, yet I felt not the slightest sensation of actually moving it. Even pinching myself produced no pain at all.
"Strange. To be able to feel everything so clearly when this is only a dream."
It was rather like falling into a succubus's dream world, I supposed. Succubi were said to create dream realms and lure human men into them so they could never escape. Roughly that sort of feeling. Though if this truly had been a succubus's dream world, the free atmosphere and sensation I felt now would have been nowhere to be found.
"I clearly received something from that elf who claimed to be the 'Elf of Blessing,' lost consciousness on the spot... and then woke up here in a dream world, is that it?"
I finished assessing the situation without trouble.
"So this is the result of that blessing... It's nothing like the image of a blessing I had in mind."
I had expected something not much different from the light that priests channel, simply soaking into the recipient's body... Never imagined I would drop into a dream world. What possible connection could there be between falling into a dream and receiving a blessing that would make this happen...?
That was when it happened.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, child of man who bears a radiant soul."
I turned my head.
A beautiful woman stood there.
The pointed ears and beauty of a completely different order from any human made it plain she was an elf. Having just been looking at the elf Riel, I could hardly fail to recognize it. Unlike Riel, however, the woman before me was thoroughly mature. She possessed the kind of ripe allure that would steal both the heart and the gaze of any human man. Even so, Jade did not let his eyes wander.
How to put it...
She was certainly attractive, yet...
The moment one met her eyes, the realization struck.
This was no ordinary living being...
Something else entirely.
Outwardly she wore the form of an elven woman, but her essence was something vast... something immense merely wrapped and concealed in the outer appearance of an elven woman. That knowledge simply arrived, naturally and without effort.
"You... what exactly are you?"
"Indeed... the owner of a special soul. To sense my true nature. And I had hidden it so perfectly."
"So what are you, then? You... honestly, I should call it a sense of wrongness... There's such a twisted feeling that it even becomes unpleasant."
"My apologies. I had no intention of deceiving you. My true form is simply too vast; the pressure of merely looking upon it could crush a person, so I had no choice. I am the World Tree—the being every elf regards as their parent, the existence humans sometimes mistake for something close to a god. That is what I am."
...Well now...
Getting tangled up with the elves I never wanted to be involved with wasn't enough; now I was tangled up with the World Tree, a being supposedly close to a god...
Was today just one of those days when nothing went right?
"Haa."
I could only let out a heavy sigh at the thought.
"Damn elf! What the hell did you do?!"
"I-I just... I only placed a special blessing!"
"What kind of blessing could possibly cause something like this!!!"
It would not have been strange for William to scream the words.
Jade had been sealed inside a barrier.
Not long after the elf took his hand, a colossal surge of energy had crashed over the space and formed that barrier, locking Jade away. William was an Archmage in his own right; he had not simply stood by and watched. He had even cast magic in an attempt to stop it somehow. It had not worked. The barrier had simply ignored his magic.
This is different from my lord's Anti-Aura! The sheer mass of the energy itself is on another level! Enough to casually disregard the power of an Archmage like me! Truly something close to a god...!!
"No! I never intended to place a blessing that grand! But then! 'Mother' suddenly intervened!"
"Mother?! Don't tell me—the World Tree?!!!!"
If it was the World Tree, it was possible.
From the start, the power held by the World Tree—called a being close to a god—was something no individual human could hope to contend with; that much was only natural.
But...
"Wasn't the World Tree unable to come outside because it has to maintain the barrier?!"
"Of course not! Idiot! Moron! How great do you think our magnificent Mother is?! You think there's anything she can't do?! It's the same as humans assuming we elves can't lie! Mother simply never chose to come outside, and humans went and decided that for themselves!"
"...Khh!"
Why in the world would the World Tree show up here of all places?!
"Well then. Shall we share a cup of tea?"
"Outside... that is, my body—is it all right?"
"Yes. I've simply raised a barrier as a precaution while your will is in contact with mine. There is no real problem."
"I imagine people will be rather startled if the World Tree's barrier suddenly appears."
"Indeed. That human mage was trying quite hard to stop it. In the end he couldn't, of course. Fufu."
"......"
When I had heard stories of the World Tree as a child, I had pictured something solemn and noble—an existence that could embrace all things, as befitting the mother of every elf... Yet the woman before me looked nothing like that image no matter how I examined her.
Drawing up my own preconceptions and then finding it strange when reality doesn't match them... Even I have to admit that's far too self-centered.
Feeling a peculiar twinge of guilt, I decided to go along with the World Tree's wishes.
"The tea is delicious."
"Yes. It was brewed from my own body, after all."
"Pffft!"
"Ah. I should clarify in case you misunderstand. My true form is a tree, so it isn't anything strange."
"...You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"I would be grateful if you took it as a little playful joke. Fufu."
"......"
Even if I wanted to get angry, that elegant, almost sacred bearing made it impossible. Had I always been the sort of man who went weak before beauty? It didn't feel that way... Or perhaps it was simply that I was tucking my tail before a presence as vast as the World Tree. She was, after all, a being called something close to a god. For a mere retired mercenary to stand firm against that was absurd from the start, wasn't it?
"You are remarkable."
Hmm?
Why was I receiving praise from the World Tree?
"What do you mean?"
"The more special a soul is, the less this world is inclined to leave it alone. It will do everything in its power to ruin that soul—as if that were the very reason for its existence. And so, no matter how special a soul one is born with, most are ultimately unable to endure and fall into corruption. There are no exceptions. Every soul has followed that path. From the distant past until this very day, that single unchanging truth has been absolute equality... until the exception that is you appeared."
"...You seem to be wrapping me up in something terribly grand, but I'm really not that remarkable a human."
I spoke to clear up the misunderstanding, yet the World Tree only shook her head with a meaningful smile. A foreboding sense that I had only piled on further misunderstanding sent a chill down my spine.
The World Tree could not help but feel genuine admiration for the human man before her who possessed such a radiant soul.
A soul that brilliant would have driven the world to use every means at its disposal to defile it. He would have been forced to lose his parents in the most brutal fashion; no one would have properly extended a helping hand; the path he walked would have been filled with disappointment and despair. And yet this human man had endured. No matter how hard the world tried to corrupt him, no matter how hard it tried to drive him to despair, he had never lost his essence. He had never surrendered it. That was a far greater feat than a superhuman who had reached the realm of Sword Master swinging an Aura Blade, or an Archmage wielding grand magic.
Those accomplishments were, in the end, merely the result of someone with innate potential learning to wield their matching talent to the fullest. By contrast, preserving one's purity in a situation where one could only lose, falter, and despair was something entirely different.
And so, to the World Tree, the radiance shown by the human man before her was more precious and valuable than that of the superhumans so often praised as great.
Which is why it was only natural that the Hero child chose this human as her sanctuary.
To that soul so full of wounds, this radiant soul must have felt not merely attractive but like paradise itself—and in truth, it was.
The World Tree insisted she was not a being close to a god and that such talk was merely human misunderstanding.
Yet she was, without question, a being close to a god.
And therefore she knew.
She alone in this world knew the truth:
that the Hero still could not escape the vicious cycle of regression.